


Pearl

by HogwartsToAlexandria



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, But really just Love, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Married Rickyl, Mpreg, Mpreg daryl dixon, They are both Grimes, a sprinkle of angst, and i like it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 12:57:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15582486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/pseuds/HogwartsToAlexandria
Summary: When Daryl is suffering through labor-induced contractions, there's only one thing Rick can do: be there to support him. Because whatever comes their way, they'll handle together.





	Pearl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JeromeSankara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeromeSankara/gifts).



> So this was meant to be posted yesterday but writing during tiny breaks on a work day can only get you so far. I hope you can still enjoy your present a day later because this is for you Jer, happy birthday again. Luv luv luv on you my friend <3  
> I hope you enjoy this.
> 
> Hope y'all do :-)
> 
> And a huge shout out to TWDObssessive for her beta, you're a precious, precious gem. <3

“I swear ta god, yer never fuckin’ touchin’ me ever again!” Daryl growled, hands white knuckling the bars of the hospital bed he was bending over.

“C'mon, Baby, surely you don't mean--"

“I mean every damn word, Grimes! And I ain't yer baby, ‘m tryin’ not ta die havin’ one…” the tone was meant to be threatening but Rick could only feel for his husband.

A low whine escaped the archer's lips and Rick all but ran from the corner of the room he'd been dared to move from.

“You can kill me later, let me help you.” Rick offered, hands tentatively brushing across Daryl's bare back where it peaked beneath the lapels of his hospital gown. “What can I do?” he pleaded again.

“Help me get in that damn bed.” Daryl grunted, words interspersed with pained hisses.

“Ok. Lemme?” Rick kept nodding, he opened his arms wide and Daryl groaned his approval.

Carefully, the cop crouched a little, passed an arm around the back of Daryl's knees, the other going to clutch tightly just beneath his arms and he lifted the man. He placed him down on the mattress as slowly as humanly possible, the deep sigh that left his husband telling him it had been the right move.

“Better?” Rick asked anyway, feeling wrecked beyond all measures at the breathtaking sight of the man he loved, all red and sweaty from his efforts. He wished he could take at least a little of his pain away but was left trying to take care of his more than reluctant partner as well as Daryl would possibly let him.

“I would be if yer child wasn't still trying to rip me apart.” Daryl snapped, hands clasped on the sides of the bed as he folded on himself, burning ache tangible everywhere Rick looked.

“Oh it's  _ my  _ child, now?” Rick said, trying to relax the man. He smiled at his husband's moody snarks, the familiar barking a sign that not all was lost in the ocean of cramps that had been giving him hell for what seemed to be an eternity by then. He lifted a hand and brushed back Daryl's sweat-slicked bangs, massaging his skull as he went and Daryl leaned into the touch, making Rick smile even brighter. At this point, Rick would do pretty much anything if it brought the other man any semblance of comfort.

The room was heavy with expectation, silence a distant memory as the men's bubble slowly filled with grunts and whines and the small cries Daryl just couldn't hold back anymore, no matter how hard he gritted his teeth, not with how the contractions only seem to get closer and closer together. Rick stood powerless by the bed, watching the man he loved contort in pain for actual hours, the OB/gyn occasionally passing by to check on him only to leave with the same diagnosis each time, ‘not just yet’.

“Can you drink a little? It's fresh.” Rick asked, waving a bottle of water, the condensation so thick on the plastic it made little slippery noises with each of Rick's movements. Daryl nodded and only fought for the mandatory few seconds before he gratefully accepted his husband's help. Rick held the bottle to his lips and after careful sips, Daryl drank, looking deep into the cop's eyes, enjoying the small moment of peace to gather himself deep down in the blue he knew better than any other color.

But their intense gazes into each other’s eyes and souls were quickly interrupted when a woman, probably a midwife, entered the room. She flashed them a bright compassionate smile filled with perfect bright teeth contrasting with the profound black of her skin and the pale blue of her uniform.

“Hello, I’m Michonne. How is the Daddy doing?” she asked, her smile not even faltering at the loud growl she got for an answer as another contraction washed over Daryl just as she stepped closer to the bed. The archer clutched at Rick’s hand with all his might all through the painful muscle cramping, features distorted with miserable frowns, lips ever parted in gasps.

“What the hell d’you think yer doin’?” Daryl jumped as the woman started lifting the sheets that had been placed on him and was now trying to part his legs, a gloved hand on each of his knees.

“My job? Gotta check if you’re dilated enough. It’s been over six hours. But if you’d prefer another doctor…” she trailed off, one hand illustrating her words by leaving Daryl’s knee to wave at the door.

“Oh. No, that’s not…hmm, just ain’t never had a woman so close to my, huh...y’know...s’weird.” Daryl was actually blushing by then, not that the woman could see with how reddened his cheeks already were from all the efforts he’d been making, but Rick knew and he couldn’t contain his soft laugh. Michonne chuckled too, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I see, well, just keep in mind that this is all standard  _ professional _ procedures, alright?” she tugged at Daryl’s knees a little and he finally let her proceed, his legs reluctantly parting.

The sight of her between his husband's legs coupled with the stunned expression on Daryl's face had Rick doubled over in laughter in no time. He ignored the glare his husband sent his way, he could pay for that later, it was just too precious. 

When he came back to his senses, he was able to notice that the surprise was actually giving Daryl some sort of reprieve from the pain, a welcomed distraction indeed.

Both men directed all their attention to Michonne when the latter straightened up again and flashed them one more of her blinding smiles.

“It’s good Mr.Grimes. There’s definite progress. Gonna need a few more centimeters before we can be sure that you’ll be able to give birth naturally but it’s looking good, ok?” the woman’s tone was one you could only achieve when well settled in the job, low, soothing, trained to settle parents-to-be whose nerves were expected to be all over the place. And it worked.  _ Kinda _ .

“Wait, you’re not sure he’ll be able to? What does that mean? Have there been talks of a C-section?” Rick asked, trying to keep his voice from reaching too high notes for both his sake and Daryl’s even though he was as alarmed as one can be. No one had said anything to them, no mention of it whatsoever.

Michonne seemed a little startled by the man’s sudden change of behavior and looking back and forth between their two faces, taking in the twin expressions of near-panic, she took a little step back before she answered.

“No need to panic, it hasn’t been discussed no. Has no one talked to you about the eventuality?” the two of them standing unmoving was all the answer she got. The midwife took a deep breath before she continued. “It is not uncommon for men to need a C-section. The difference between women and men’s birth canals makes it so that sometimes, because the way isn’t as straight as it is with female bodies, babies don’t find their way as easily and we have to perform the surgery. It  _ is _ a very common procedure though, very simple and very often practiced by the ped surgeons we have in this hospitalso you have  _ nothing _ to be afraid of if we do get there, understood?” she smiled again and waited for them both to nod before she asked. “Do you have questions?” 

Rick looked at his husband and wasn’t surprised to see him already staring at him, the look in his eyes wasn’t as fearful as he expected it to be so that was good but there was still that glint he knew so well,  _ ‘need you to take charge fer me, Rick’ _ . He gave the tiniest nod, hand gripping Daryl in both a reassuring and grounding pressure.

“Would he be awake?”

“Yes, the use of regional anesthesia is preferred for this surgery. Unless there are complications, you’d be awake.” she nodded at Daryl and he nodded back, filing away all the bits of information she gave them while silently cursing the various doctors they’d seen for never saying anything for nine damn months of regular appointments. What the hell?

“Would I be able to stay with him?”

“Yes, the hospital allows it, you’d have to wear scrubs but you’d be together, yes.”

“Good. How likely is this again?” Rick asked, tone a little shaky despite all his efforts to sound confident.

“Our country has a high-rate of C-sections, Mr.Grimes, I won’t lie to you, it is a possibility. But,” she marked a pause. “for now, you two concentrate on trying to get this baby girl to greet us the natural way, I’ll be back in an hour to check on you.” 

She gave them a final nod and smile before she left the room.

“I’m scared, Rick.” Daryl said as soon as the door closed back on her and, still mindful of his husband’s distressed body, Rick plastered himself on him, settling next to Daryl on the bed, arms all around him in a makeshift safe haven in this unfamiliar environment.

“Don’t be, Darling. She did say there was progress. And if we have a C-section, then we’ll have the--”

“We?” Daryl interrupted, sounding almost hopeful?

“Yes,  _ ‘we’ _ , we’re in this together, remember? I wish I could take the pain away, I can’t, but we’re still doing this, the two of us, my sweet, sweetheart. So, if there is a surgery, you don’t need to be scared, I’ll be right there with you, ok?” 

Instead of answering with words, Daryl chose to tuck his face right in Rick’s neck, breathing deep through his latest contraction, finding strength in the smell of the man he loved as new whines of pain escaped him. Rick hugged him as tight as possible, kissing the crown of his head, rubbing his shoulder, threading fingers through the hair that stuck to the man’s neck, whispering sweet nothings in his ear. 

“I hate hospitals, Rick.” Daryl murmured.

“I know, I know.” he answered, moving so he could kiss his husband’s temple. “You’re good, Baby, you’re doing good.” 

“I wasn’t kiddin’, I ain’t ever lettin’ ya touch me again.” 

Rick laughed, low down his throat and sat up, looking down at Daryl with a raised eyebrow.

“Is  _ that _ so?” he asked, all smug looks and lips-licking.

“Ya think yer irresistible or somethin’?”

“No, I think  _ you  _ like it too much to resist, there’s a difference.” Rick winked and Daryl faked an annoyed huff, rolling his eyes for good measure but, yeah, the man had a point. 

“Y’know, I hate you, almost as much as I hate doctors right now.” 

“I’ll hang on to the  _ ‘almost’ _ for now. Hoping it stays that way.” Rick chuckled again before he bent down again and took his husband’s lips in a deeper kiss than he’d been able to indulge in for hours. “How are you feeling?” 

“Wre--” Daryl couldn’t finish, a burning flash of pain washed all through his body and he bent over, crashing Rick to the side in the process. He shouted in agony and Rick rose from the bed immediately, quickly ran to the door and yelled for a nurse in the hallway, going back to Daryl as soon as he saw movement indicating he’d been heard down the corridor.

“What is it?” he asked, frantic, hands waving around not knowing what to do with himself seeing his man in such torment. 

“S’different...the pain...it’s different…” Daryl panted, head between his legs, his whines echoing down the walls of the room.

Michonne burst back into the room quickly followed by one of her colleagues. This time she didn’t make a ceremony of revealing Daryl’s parted legs, the sheets all but flew off the bed and Rick’s mouth opened in shock. There was blood, blood where there had been nothing just minutes before and given the serious, concentrated look Michonne’s face took, Rick understood it couldn’t be good. 

“We’ll take you to surgery right away, Daryl, ok?” she asked, dropping the last name referral, but she was already getting the bed to move with the other woman’s help and Rick followed as they rolled his husband out of the room and down the hallway, not running but close.

“Rick, you’ll go and get scrubbed in with Maggie here, so you can be in the room with him and ready when we tell you you can come in.” 

“Ok. Ok, I’m following, show me the way.” he rushed to kiss the first patch of skin he could find on Daryl’s shaking form before the other midwife,  _ Maggie _ , nudged him away and guided him to the room right next to the O.R. his husband was being brought to. 

“Is he going to be okay? What’s going on? Do you know?” Rick couldn’t stop himself from asking, questions rushing in and out of his over-the-top panicked brain and mouth and flooding the young woman while he still hurried to get dressed in the scrubs she had given him, almost scraping his arms cleaning them with the surgical soap.

“Labor was likely taking too long and your husband being a man, complications can occur with the bowel. The fact that there is blood and that he is in pain makes us act fast for both his and the baby’s health but there is no evidence that this is a life-threatening occurrence, breathe, Rick, I can call you Rick, right?” the woman had one hand on each of his forearms, eyes boring into his own and he found her incredibly grounding. Rick took a deep breath and nodded.

“Yes, yes, you can, can we go in now?” he asked, voice still trembling with worries, he silently prayed she’d say yes right away, not being close to his husband in such moments was unthinkable. 

She nodded but stopped him when he went straight for the door.

“That’s not the way, this door is.” she pointed to another door right next to the sinks where he’d been peeling his skin off just moments ago. He’d reflect on how dumb it was to want to go out the way they’d just come in when he’d spent the last five minutes sterilizing every available inch of himself when things calmed down, for now, Rick only wondered why in the hell she was still holding him back, effectively preventing him from entering the operating room.

“You’ll have to keep a cool head, can you do that? You’ll be right by him, so you can see each other and you can reassure him, encourage him, pet his hair all you want but you cannot interrupt the doctors in anyway or you’ll be made to leave, are we clear?” 

“Of course, come on, let’s go, please.” Rick knew he sounded miserable but he’d literally agree to anything if it meant he could get back to Daryl, plus, there was nothing he wanted less than to get in the way of people who had the man’s life at the end of their scalpels. Just thinking about it had shivers running down his spine.

“Yes, okay.” 

She opened the door and Rick tried his best not to run towards Daryl. His husband looked completely bare under the surgical sheets the nurses had draped over him, his hair was bunned in a net hat and as soon as he spotted Rick, his eyes seemed to water a little.

“Shhh. You’re good, you’re good, Baby.” 

“Sc--Scared...I’m…” Daryl hiccuped and Rick felt his heart break in his chest.

“I know, but I’m here, everything is going to be fine, ok?”

Someone pushed a rolling stool over to Rick and he sat on it, immediately getting as close as he could behind Daryl’s head, hands coming to cup his jaw and brush across his nose and lips. It looked like everyone was ready and suddenly, every person in the room got busy. The anesthesia specialist signaled the surgeon that the drugs were kicking in, a scrub nurse put an oxygen mask over Daryl’s mouth, the doctor asked for a scalpel and everyone was in movement.

Just as Michonne had assured them, Daryl was very much awake throughout the whole process, gazing into Rick’s eyes, holding on to it like a drowning man pictures the shore and Rick kept brushing his netted hair, caressing every little patch of skin on his face that wasn’t covered by the mask. 

More than once through the one hour and fourteen minute procedure, Rick was grateful for the fabric that had been held right beneath Daryl’s neck, effectively blocking the eye from seeing what was going on down below. 

He kept murmuring encouragements to his husband, telling him how good he was doing, how beautiful he was, how Rick was very fucking proud of him for being so strong, how their baby girl was already so lucky because she was to have him as a parent. 

And then, both men raised their heads, the baby was out of the womb, being carried a little way from them by the nurses to cleanse her face and clear her airways, the two women hard at work trying to elicit the infamous first cry that would reassure everyone. And once they did, both men cried along with their daughter as they heard her for the first time. When she was brought to them for the traditional and essential first contact of skin on skin, Daryl didn’t even pay attention to the surgeon stitching him back up. There was only her, that adorable miniscule and very red bundle of a doll pressed to his naked chest, eyes tightly shut and hands so small he could hardly see them with how blurry with tears his vision was. 

“She’s in perfect health, you two be proud.” Michonne whispered to them and the rest of the hospital staff nodded their agreement while still going on with their respective tasks. 

Once Daryl was all patched up, the surgeon turned towards them, throwing his gloves to the nearest can and shaking Rick’s hand.

“I’m Dr.Greene, sorry we haven’t had time to meet formally before, but you know… Anyway, a pleasure to see you two all healthy. You’re going to feel a little under the weather in the next days Mr.Grimes but I trust it you won’t be alone to deal with it, so, congratulations to you both.” the doctor said, alternatingly nodding at them and looking at their daughter with a fond smile. “What’s her name?” he asked and Rick grinned, he turned towards Daryl who’d been freed from his oxygen mask by then, encouraging him to say it with a tilt of his head.

“Judith, Judith Leah Grimes.” Daryl murmured, not looking up at the doctor. There was awe in both his voice and eyes, he looked transfixed and if Rick was being honest, he was struggling with himself to be polite and acknowledge the doctor when all he really wanted was to stare at his family for the rest of his life. 

He thanked the man still and allowed one of the nurses to help free himself from the scrubs. He followed when Daryl and their daughter were wheeled out of the room and transferred to a new bed before being settled back in another room down the recovery aisle of the building. 

It was like walking on air. Michonne and Maggie stayed with them both for the better half of an hour, telling them about everything they should pay attention to during this first night with Judith but mostly just gushing over her. Sweet, sweet pearl.

All was well until they started talking them through the process of healing from a C-section and Daryl laughed at something Maggie whispered in his ear.

“What is it?” Rick demanded, searching Daryl’s tired smile and glowing eyes for a clue.

“I told ya, ya’d never be able to touch me ever again.” Daryl said simply, mischief written in his still slick bangs and the corners of his lips raising to show off his all too sexy mole.

“Huh?” Rick grunted eloquently.

“No sex for at least six weeks, doctor’s orders after a C.” Daryl chuckled at the horrified expression on his husband’s face.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Also find me on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hogwartstoalexandria)


End file.
